The prestigious annual Rose D'Or Awards (now in their 55th year) honour the very best of international radio, TV and online entertainment programmes, and the awards ceremony took place last night (Tuesday, September 13th 2016). Over 400 programmes from more than 130 broadcasters and production companies in 33 different countries were submitted for this year’s Rose d’Or awards. For the first time, a new competition category, 'Radio Event Of The Year' was created. We entered European Dawn Chorus in this category, and we're absolutely delighted to let you know that ... drumroll... WE WON!!! We're absolutely thrilled to pieces, and a massive thanks to all our EBU and BirdLife International partners, we couldn't have done it without you! Click here to read more about the 2016 Rose D'Or awards (in which legendary funnyman John Cleese picked up the Lifetime Achievement award), and click here to relive - and re-listen to - all the beautiful Dawn Chorus birdsong from right across Europe.

***STOP PRESS*** Dawn Chorus Picks Up Another Award!

We're thrilled to let you know that on Friday, October 7th, the Dawn Chorus won the Innovation Award at the PPI Radio Awards in Kilkenny!

On Mooney today...

Duncan Stewart talks to us about waste and how we throw away three billion euro worth of food every year. We check out a metabolism tester to find out how many calories we can consume without putting on weight. And Derek is also joined by Eilish O’Carroll, aka Mrs Brown’s best friend Winnie!

Metabolism Testing

How many calories do you need in a day? Guidelines vary from 1,500 to 2,000 calories per day for a woman and from 2,000 to 2,500 for a man.

But Sean Kinane says that figure varies wildly from person to person. And what we really should be looking at is our "Resting Metabolic Rate" – that this is a truer indication of how many calories each individual is allowed to consume. And it can be measured by just blowing in a tube!

Derek takes this metabolic test today to find out about his resting metabolic rate, and Mooney reporter Katriona McFadden goes out to ask people "how many calories do you think you are allowed in a day and how do you burn them off?"

Sean Kinane, founder of MyHealthMatters.ie, specialises in 'Metabolic Testing'; he joins Derek in studio with the results of his metabolic test, and to explain how it all works...

***DUE TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC VISITING MYHEALTHMATTERS.IE, YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE SITE. IF YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY, PRESS F5 SEVERAL TIMES TO REFRESH YOUR ACCESS TO THE SITE, AND HOPEFULLY YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET IN!***

Eilish O’Carroll

Derek is joined from our Cork studios today by comic actor and playwright Eilish O’Carroll. Eilish is the sister of comedian Brendan O’Carroll, and nearest in age to him in their very large family!

Eilish O'Carroll as Winne McCoogan

You will know her best for her role in Mrs. Brown’s Boys as the hapless Winnie McGoogan, who has been a long-time friend of Agnes Brown!

Eilish O'Carroll

Eilish will soon be travelling to Rhyl, in Wales, for a short three-and-a-half-week tour called For The Love Of Mrs Brown. The cast will record the Christmas Special in May, in July they are back on tour and there will be a movie in September. In the mean time, Eilish will appear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August with her autobiographical one-woman show: Live Love Laugh.

Duncan Stewart & Food Waste

Do you see the planet as a giant supermarket? Architect and environmentalist Duncan Stewart thinks we do and that we are all guilty of treating food as a disposable commodity. His recent series Eco Eye made for some uncomfortable viewing - Duncan explained that one in 5 Irish children go to school hungry. But when you couple this with the fact that we waste the equivalent of three billion euro a year of food, the mind boggles…

We waste food at every stage of the food chain, as Duncan Stewart found out when he spoke to Tristram Stuart, author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. Duncan joins Derek in studio today to chat about the huge problem of food waste - and what we can all do to help solve it...

Duncan mentions a website whereby a business can contact a charity as soon as food they are going to throw out becomes available, and you can find out more about this on www.foodgfood.com.

Bedtime Bickering

Hedgerows: It is an offence to 'cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy hedgerows on uncultivated land during the nesting season from 1 March to 31 August, subject to certain exceptions'. For more information, click here.

UPDATE: February 29th 2016 - Press Release From BirdWatch Ireland:

Putting the record straight: Dates for burning and hedge-cutting have NOT changed

BirdWatch Ireland, Ireland’s largest conservation charity, is very concerned about misinformation that is currently circulating regarding the dates within which the burning of vegetation and cutting of hedges is permitted. It would like to remind landowners that all burning and cutting must cease on 29th February this year and that burning and cutting remains prohibited from 1st March to 31st August.

Despite attempts by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys T.D., to change the laws regulating these dates by introducing the Heritage Bill 2016 earlier this year, it is important to note that the proposed date changes were ultimately NOT made. This is because the bill failed to pass through both houses of the Oireachtas before the recent dissolution of the Dáil in advance of the general election.

The laws in place governing the dates for hedge-cutting and upland burning therefore remain unchanged. The period within which cutting and burning is prohibited are set down in Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 (as amended in 2000), which states that:

(a) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy, during the period beginning on the 1st day of March and ending on the 31st day of August in any year, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated.
(b) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy any vegetation growing in any hedge or ditch during the period mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection (above).

The existing law provides exemptions for road safety and other circumstances and should be read carefully to ensure compliance.

Section 40 of the Wildlife Act exists to protect nesting birds. Many of our upland bird species are in decline and are in danger of extinction in Ireland; amongst them is the Curlew, which has declined by 80%. Many birds which nest in hedgerows into August are also in serious decline, including the endangered Yellowhammer. The changes to the cutting and burning dates which had been proposed in the now-defunct Heritage Bill 2016 would have caused serious impacts to these birds. A petition launched by BirdWatch Ireland in conjunction with several other national conservation organisations to stop these changes attracted more than 16,200 signatures and rising.

BirdWatch Ireland would also like to advise members of the public that if they see hedges being cut or fires in the uplands on or after 1st March, such activity could be illegal. In such cases, we would encourage people to contact the National Parks and Wildlife Service (www.npws.ie) to report such activity.

BirdWatch Ireland warmly welcomes the demise of the Heritage Bill 2016 and sincerely hopes that any future administration will consider the importance of Ireland’s natural heritage and will not attempt to reintroduce such a flawed and damaging piece of legislation.

RTÉ.ie is the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's National Public Service Broadcaster.RTÉ is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. Images courtesy of Inpho.ie and Getty Images.